After Flying my Zagi for about a month, I have been running into problems while making down-wind turns. About half way through, the aircraft stalls and falls out of the sky... Help?

You are forgetting that the actual airspeed of the model is slower than it appears. Relative to you on the ground it is really moving, but that is because it has a tail wind and it's actual airspeed (speed through the air) is lower. If you put it in a steep bank the stall speed goes up and you stall, if you started the turn at near stall speed. I believe you'll have to keep more "airspeed" on it.

My .02.

agree,speed up.

Yup

I try to avoid making slow turns downwind.
I go into the turn hard and get it around fast.

It looks like it's going fast enough but it's not...stall.

I ofter loop instead of turning, it gets me going in the other direction faster.

Bill

Keep the power up till on final if you have to. If you get slow and add a bunch of power turning base or final, you will find out what a low level spin is.

Sounds like you learned about relative airspeed and its importance to maintaining flight. A fast tailwind will increase your groundspeed which causes many new pilots to reduce power and airspeed to maintain within their "comfort level" which unfortunately reduces the relative airspeed to below that of the aircraft's stall speed.
Several of my 1/2 a airpanes would stall at full throttle when flying downwind in winds exceeding 15 mph. Instead of packing it up, I'd compensate by ensuring I have plenty of altitude to use to "dive" the aircraft to maintain relative airspeed only to turn on final and land with little (sometimes fly backward) groundspeed. It can be fun!

????? how does that work??? A loop starts and finishes in the same direction !

Well, you know this, I guess I did'nt explain it enough.

Immelmann
Start wings level as if executing a full loop and when you reach the top, immediately half-roll to the left or right, opening the throttle to regain speed.

The Reversal
The Reversal is another method of reversing your direction but recovering at the same altitude as the start of the manoeuvre (unlike the Immelmann and Split 'S').

Turns down wind in a strong wind with a stock zagi are hard. You loose a lot of air speed.

Bill

Imagine you were standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier (sounds like fun already). The ship is steaming North at 30mph. A steady 30mph wind blows from the South. It would be absolutely calm standing on the deck. What would happen if you flew a park flyer? Would the plane have any trouble flying? Would it stall when it turns downwind?

Your friend is standing on a Southbound ship traveling at 30mph. He feels a wind of 60mph blowing in his face. As he passes, you toss the transmitter to him. Would he have any trouble flying the plane? What if he wanted to land on the aircraft carrier. Would it matter which direction he landed? Assume he has binoculars and can see perfectly at great distance.

Tom

Greenboot-good experiment-Unfortunatly, remember that the plane is not attatched to the carrier. The longer its in the air, the slower it will go. Therefor it would be swept away in 30 mph winds. (try a bigger plane )

Greenboot is correct. In case #1, the boat, air mass, and pilot are all moving at the same speed. So to the pilot, there would be no difference which way he flies (into or out of the wind). However to someone on a rock that the ship is passing, the plane is going VERY fast down wind while barely moving upwind.

Another way to think of it is to imagine flying circles at 20 MPH in a block of still air. From the ground, the plane is flying circles. Now move that block of air at 10 MPH. If the plane stays in that same block of air, it is still flying circles, but the circles don't look round from the ground.

Again, you are right. However with REAL LIFE you cant wrestle a park flyer in 30 mph winds. No matter WHERE the ground is

soooooo- HA HA (just kiddding)

Like Uncle Albert said...

"It's all relative."